I was going to do this blog in an organized fashion, with posts remaining in chronological order according to my experiences but I really just wanted to get this post off of my chest and out of the way. It's embarrassing, humiliating, and frankly, I want to forget it ever happened. However, I believe that it has happened to other nurses, young and old, and it will continue to happen to other nurses: good nurses, terrible nurses, and nurses that are just average. If you feel it necessary to judge, please leave a comment or shoot me an email detailing your concerns.
I would like to preface this story with a disclaimer: I am a good nurse. I am on my way to being an excellent nurse because I have had excellent nurses train me. I hold a high standard of care, and I hold my co-workers to the same level. I am willing to help in almost any situation or emergency. However, no one, especially not me, is perfect. I had made "The Leap," I sold all of my belongings (I'll discuss sell vs. store in another post), I had quit my full time ICU position, and I had moved the dog and I 1,200 miles north. Here I was! I had arrived! I am living my career dream! I am full of hope! Vigor! Excitement! Then, I got fired.
Yep! You heard me. Three weeks into my very first travel assignment, I. Got. Fired.
I am not willing to sit here and preface the reasons I was "cancelled," with a lot of excuses about the facility and the circumstances it was under and yadda yadda. I screwed up. Plain and simple. The ICU I was working in hadn't had air conditioning for a while, and it was 82 degrees in the nurses station. It was about 0500, and I had just sit down to chart. I wrote 0525 on my chart, wrote a note with my head in my hand, and then jolted awake at 0529 according to the monitor I was sitting in front of. Three years of working 60-72 hour weeks of night shift, and this has never, ever happened. Ever. I got up, walked around and grabbed myself a cup of coffee. I continued on about my morning, vowing to never let that happen again.
It was about ten minutes later when the Nursing Supervisor and Nurse Manager that had come in early for a meeting, approached me. In front of everyone. Publicly. The supervisor demanded that I give her my badge, and get out before they called security. There was no preface, no warning, no privacy for me, and certainly no dignity. "Another nurse saw you sleeping at the desk and said you weren't doing your work, so get out. NOW" She actually yelled. All the while, I sat there with my mouth agape. I was in total shock.
I got in my car and drove to my company provided apartment, and started packing. I was convinced that I was going to be evicted first thing in the morning and it was in my best interest to flee in the night. I at least had the rational thought to call my agencies 24 Hour Emergency Clinical Hotline. I had no idea what it was going to accomplish, but I thought I would at least let someone know that on this fabulous Saturday morning that I had gotten shit-canned. I then continued to maniacally pack my things...My apartment looked like a church rummage sale.
I eventually fell asleep (in bed this time!!!), and was awakened by my recruiter's groggy Its-Saturday-Morning-What-the-hell-is-going-on voice. I explained what happened, and do you know what her response was? "Ok, we will find you another assignment Monday, don't worry about it. Normally it would be an issue, but you have extensively documented the issues with the facility, and honestly, it will probably be better for you in the long run." For the second time within a 24 hour period, I was actually speechless. I'm never rendered speechless people!!!!
You see my dear readers, as every good nurse should, I used my nurse/spidey sense and recognized that I was in a high risk clinical setting, and had been documenting, through emails to my agency, all of my safety concerns with the facility over the past three weeks. I won't list them here, but they were blatant and compromised my patients. Sure, I really screwed up. I made a mistake. I let the heat and the time of day get to me and I dozed off. You know I will never make that mistake again, that's for damn sure. However, I learned a larger lesson. Document your face off. Documentation isn't always just in the patient's chart. Don't let your unfamiliarity of the facility overrun your deeply ingrained nursing "sense." Express your safety concerns to the chain of command. If they won't listen, you do the best you can in the situation for your patients, and then you call your agency. You can call the 24 hour hotline at night. You'll normally get a call back in three hours. Don't ignore that feeling in the pit of your stomach that something is wrong!
You will hear that agencies don't like, "complainers." This is for the most part, true. The reason the facility is hiring travelers is because they needed help. However, use your common sense. When something is either compromising the patient, or compromising your license, or both. Stop. Express your concern. There is a difference between "complaining" and "protecting yourself." No one can take your license away from you if you don't do something that you know is wrong or harmful. Always remember that. A good way to lead into a problem is, "I have some safety concerns that I would like to address." No house supervisor will have a rock to stand on when you use that phrase.
Now that this situation has happened to me, the worst is over. I can only go "up" from here. I have learned from my mistake, but I also learned to listen to my gut. Your ultimate loyalty is to your patient, don't forget that.
P.S. My recruiter did find me another assignment that Monday, and I start next week. If this ever happens to you, you are able to recover. It's not the end of the world.
P.P.S. All of my documented safety concerns were addressed in a conference call between my agency's corporate office and the CEO, DON, and Unit manager of the assigned hospital. The change at the facility is pending.
No comments:
Post a Comment